Goodbye to Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo, One of the Most Annoying "Civility" Guys in Politics

Miami and Florida Keys congressman Carlos Curbelo, a self-styled "moderate" Republican in a heavily Democratic district, is no more. He has conceded his congressional race to upstart challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a healthcare worker. As it stands, he's losing by only 3,000-odd votes, but just enough to make a win seem implausible.

In classic Curbelo fashion, his concession speech was chock-full of the same pie-in-the-sky, smarmy, condescending nonsense that has characterized his tenure in Congress. In conceding, Curbelo called for increased "civility" in politics from both the right and left. He begged the nation to "heal" and "come together" without actually digging into the fact that one side sure seems to be a hell of a lot more violent, racist, and insane than the other.

In his concession speech, Curbelo says our politics have gotten ugly and violent. He calls for healing and says that many Americans fled countries with brutal political systems, so we should protect our democracy together. https://t.co/LkfxNSK6I8

This is, quite likely, because Curbelo was either unwilling or unable to admit that his own, allegedly "civil" ideas — small government and low taxes in exchange for basically nonexistent social programs or labor rights — were inherently uncivil to begin with. His platform increasingly has no home in either party: He's spent the Trump years constantly talking about how much he allegedly disagrees with the ethno-nationalist, Trump-led wing of his own party.

But as tonight showed, he was still significantly too conservative to succeed in his deep-blue South Florida district. Despite his rhetoric about bipartisanship and civility, he voted in line with Trump's agenda 83 percent of the time. He will perhaps most famously be known for voting for a failed 2017 Obamacare repeal despite the fact that his own district contained one of the highest concentrations of Affordable Care Act beneficiaries in America. He also voted for the 2017 Republican tax cut — and personally benefited from it.

The annoying thing about Curbelo, though, wasn't so much the votes as his personality. He would have been less frustrating had he been some sort of garden-variety weed-whacker-rental-company-owning asshole. Instead, he was the type of jerk who tried to take your healthcare away and then spent the next year telling you to stop being such a baby about it. He never once admitted that he, in fact, might have been the "uncivil" one all along.

Jerry Iannelli is a staff writer for Miami New Times. He graduated with honors from Temple University. He then earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. He moved to South Florida in 2015.

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